Curb Appeal DIY Details

June 8, 2016

I recently shared the update we did to the exterior of our home for a summer home tour HERE. We partnered with Lowes Home Improvement to give our home some much needed curb appeal. I really wanted to overhaul the entire thing but we weren’t willing to invest that much into it. I am so amazed at what a few simple updates could do. To be honest I was worried that the changes I wanted to make wouldn’t make that big of a difference. But I have to say that I was happily surprised. We have even had people walking by our home tell us they like the update. I had a friends husband say that it feels like a little beach cottage now, that put a big smile on my face! We are close to the beach and that is exactly what I wanted it to feel like.

Let’s first see the BEFORE our Curb Appeal updates-

Curb Appeal To-do List-

#1- Change the iron railing

#2- Do something to the cement walk-up

#3- Change out the front door and take off the screen

#4- Fix up the front steps

#5- Add some charm with window boxes, plants and new light fixture

Here is the AFTER our Curb Appeal to-do List was complete-

I think my favorite part is the pebble walk-up. We really needed to have the black cement tore up or recovered with pavers and I couldn’t come up with an option that didn’t involve spending our entire budget on ripping it out or putting something completely new in.

I noticed several homes use these pebble rocks on their driveways, creating that beach look. I thought that they were just over dirt but when I looked closer they were actually over the black cement and it made such a difference! We used the marble pebble rocks from Lowes that are less than three dollars a bag. We picked them up at our local store.

TIP- I suggest measuring your space before you go and know the square footage by multiplying your length by your width in feet.

We bought a couple of extra bags to fill in once they get spread around. We finished off the look by lining the pathway with pavers that we also found at Lowes in their garden section. I did get asked how we will deal with clearing snow off of the pebble rocks in the winter. We will shovel the top layer off and dump ice melt over the rocks. The entire walk-up cost us about us about $30, so if we loose some rocks we can easily add more.

We replaced the metal door and the glass screen door with a new wood gorgeous front door from Lowes. I had gone back and forth on what door to do. We are close to the road so I didn’t want to have too much glass, yet I would miss being able to open that glass screen door and let light in. I was happy when I found this door, it was a good compromise. We painted it (by we, my sisters painted the door when they were in town, they are the best!)

Front Door Paint Color- Valspars Blue Coal in semi-gloss

Trim Paint Color- Valspars Ultra White

House Paint Color- The house is just siding that was here when we moved in. I have gotten asked about the color. So I matched it and it looks more similar to- White Sand from Benjamin Moore or Creamy from Sherwin Williams. I suggest testing these colors before going with them, this is just a color match.

Door Style– is called Therma-Tru and the style is Classic-Craft, this is something you can order at your local Lowes store.

We added window boxes to both windows. I loved that Lowes sold them in a long enough length for my biggest window. I really wanted to brighten up the house so I went with white. You can find my actual window boxes HERE.

We also added a new light fixture. I was pretty particular about finding the right one. I wanted to create a beach and craftsman feel and also add in some brushed pewter. You can find my exact light HERE.

My cotton ball wreath is from Curtis Creation, I love the pop of white on the dark door. You can find it HERE.

We painted the steps in white cement paint that I found at Lowes. We actually picked out a cement paint and had them mix in the white I wanted. They sell pre-mixed colors but all of them were too gray.

Paint on Steps and Trim-Valspars Ultra White in cement paint

*Use a primer before painting your steps

I am finishing with something we actually did first, that was ripping out the iron railing and replacing it with this nice white railing. I wanted to do a wood railing in an x pattern but soon realized that the cedar wood we were going to use takes close to a year to dry in our area before we could paint it. And I don’t have time to watch wood dry. So we went with a composite railing that was easy to install, you can find the actual railing HERE. The large main pillars are actually wood and you can find those HERE. The pillars were primed so we just did a new coat of white over those once they were installed.

We are pretty thrilled with the simple easy updates that we could do on our own. Thank you Lowes Home Improvement for Sponsoring this post.

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Thank you for answering my question about the snow. I didn’t see the 06824 the other day. I am 06825. I saw a show on HGTV many years ago and they did a driveway in stones. The host sprinkled something on the rocks that kind of glued them together and for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. Our sidewalk has sunk over the years and now puddles are forming and something has to be done but something that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. I am going to research this and if this old lady ever finds out what he put on the rocks, I will let you know. Thanks again for telling me.

I love your new front porch and I’m inspired because we have the same front railing at our home. I have a question, was your railing actually embedded in the concrete? And how big of a job was it to have it removed? I guess I would love to know a little more of the technical side to see if it’s something we could do here too.

It was cemented to the stairs. I paid someone to take it out. He just sawed it off and was able to attach the new railing to the cement. It only took him maybe 6 hours to do it all- so worth it. I would have it bid by a handy man- unless you are handier than we are!

Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he actually bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! “There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire.” by Jules Renard.

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Welcome

I have always loved Nesting. It became more rewarding when I started preparing the nest for my Ella Grace and Lola Faith. I design around things that have a story and mix in funky trendy pieces. I am a Utah native, Connecticut transplant with 17 years experience at a design firm in Utah in designing, managing and as head store buyer. I love Kevin, Ella and Lola, to get my heart rate up in any sort of group setting, eating simple and clean or just give me a sweet potato and I am happy.
Contact me about working togethernestingwithgrace@gmail.com.